Monday, December 5, 2011

December 2011

Hello Hello!

It is so weird that I already have 2 weeks here in La Serena and that it is December! Ahh it is going by so fast! I feel like that next time I blink I am going to be in my last change. It has been a pretty crazy week. First of all I would just like everyone out there reading to know how much I hate lice and I never want to go through that again! We were up until two in the morning last Monday treating our hair and cleaning out the pension and we just finished getting all of our stuff washed. We are all paranoid now and are starting to wear our hair up more. Now when I go into bathrooms the first thing I look for and have seen are lice combs. I have a feeling that it is something very common here, that a lot of people have because they don´t wash their hair as frequently as we do. But I think right now we are doing good.

My companionship has been going very well so far and we are having a lot of success. I have been so surprised at how many doors are opening and the people we are meeting. The people here in La Serena are great! We are teaching a Pastor from and Evangelic church and he came to Church with us this week. It was sweet and he is reading like crazy the book of mormón and taking notes as we teach. I am really excited to see how he progresses. Also we had the best contact and lesson the other day. We had received a reference from someone last week and when we found the house and knocked on the door a lady came out. We found out that the person we were looking for didn´t live there but we started talking to the lady. We have a card that has a bunch of questions on it so I passed it to her and said, ¨have you ever had one of these questions before?¨. She looked at it for awhile and then said, ¨I know the the answer to this one already... (Is there life after death?).. we just die and that is it. There isn´t anything more.¨ I looked at her and then I ask ¨Did someone close to you pass away recently?¨ Then she said. ¨Yes my dad died two months ago and I know that I will never see him again.¨ I then said, ¨As missionaries we share a message about this plan that our Heavenly Father has for us and part of that means that we will be with our families forever, in this life and the life after this. And in this book, called the Book of Mormon it can tell you all about it.¨ She just looked at us for a minute and then wiped a tear away from her face. At the end of the contact we left the book for her to read about where her father is now and made an appointment to visit her. Yesterday we went to her house and she let us in right away. We sang families can be together forever and then started sharing the plan of salvation. At the end of the lesson we went back and focused on where her dad was right now. Then I asked her, ¨If you knew that these things we taught you were true, how would that change your life?¨ She paused for a minute or maybe two, it was awhile, and then said, ¨How would it change my life? It would be a joy so immense that I couldn´t even describe it.¨ Then I started to testify telling her that I know these things are true, that she has a Father in Heaven that loves her and because of that he created this plan so she could live with her dad again. And as servants of the Lord we promised her that if she prayed sincerely wanting to know if it was true she would have a huge feeling of peace and calmness come over her. When I finished testifying she started wiping away the tears again. When we left the house I said to Hermana Cárcamo that I think she(the lady) felt something in that lesson. Hermana Cárcamo said when I started testifying at the end, the Spirit entered the room very strongly and she could see it in my eyes. It was such a powerful experience, something I wasn´t expecting.

But anyway it has been a good week and we are expecting an even better one this week. Senor companions have a training this week for two days, so tomorrow and Wednesday Hermana Norton and I will be training and our companions will be out working. Did I tell you that we live in our area this change. I am so happy because for the last 7 months of my mission I have had to do A LOT of extra walking because we lived outside our area. So this pension and area have been a huge blessing in my life. :)

Well I have to get going! Love you all and I hope you are all enjoying the snow!